Pretty much everyone who is a fan of British Hard Rock knows the story of Thunder’s lead singer Danny Bowes in regards to his stroke, the plummet down a set of stairs and the severe damage to his brain masking the stroke from the medical experts and leaving him in a coma for a while.

Still unable to perform as a vocalist currently, and with a cloud hanging over if he will ever again.

Danny has decided to tour the UK with the Maximum Chat show, a format of spoken word shows that he has visited before with tours with Ben Matthews and another with Luke Morley.

On a warm, windy Sunday on June the 1^st 2025, the two lines outside the Cambridge Junction to enter are longer than I have ever seen for a show there (and I’ve seen a fair few). This, the first show of tour was sold out as are most of the other shows and the ones that are not, will most likely do so.

The audience take their seats to an empty stage with a lone armchair, lamp, coffee table, pot plants and a bottle of water. Show time and Danny appears, picks up his microphone, he looks pretty healthy considering his woes; there’s maybe a slight hint of a limp and the entire crowd rise to their feet and give him a standing ovation before he can say a word. Danny is visually taken aback and his first few words are low, maybe the mic needed its level adjusted or he needed to compose himself.

There will be no spoilers in this review but I will give a general hint. The delivery was relaxed and Danny has always been one of the best raconteurs in the music business. Unafraid to say things as he sees them, swears a little bit (as he has said before this is Rock n Roll not the Sooty show), always funny, always a bit cheeky chappy and always honest and relateable.

He only briefly talks about his accident as an introduction then the chat begins in earnest. We are guided through his younger life and beginnings of his music career. I’ve seen him on a couple of these spoken word tours before and, having been a fan since 1990, I’ve seen plenty of video and magazine interviews and every tale told is a new one to me, not that I’d have cared hearing any again.

He’s chatting away so much and relaxed in his role of storyteller that’s he suddenly after looking at his watch exclaims “Fuck I am twenty minutes over the first part!’ He quickly informs us there is a box on stage and a pile of question cards and asks the audience to provide him with questions for Q&A sessions after the interval.

The second set involves the Terraplane days and the birth of Thunder, then moves onto the previously mentioned Q&A session. Danny answers in his normal sometimes blunt yet with a twinkle in his eye manner, some frankly silly questions are dealt with as are some truly touching ones which brought some ‘ahs’ from the ladies seated near me. Then it’s suddenly over.

I could have listened to him for hours more but Mr. Bowes had timed his show to perfection. Without a doubt, every person in the room would give anything to hear Danny belting out the likes of ‘Don’t Wait For Me’ like he did at Monsters Of Rock all those years ago. Also, at the same time, every single one of us were happy he’s still with us and enjoyed just being in his company and listening to him talk.

An amazing night with not a note played and wasn’t needed too.

Review by Martin David Porter
Photo by Paul Chamberlain

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Power Plays w/c 1 December 2025

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